If you’re trying to activate your copy of Office 2003 by phone don’t try the 509 number. It’s since been disconnected. I don’t know anyone who would go for a long-distance number but I figured, hey, maybe I’ll get faster service than if I called the toll-free. How quickly I learned…
The following are some ways to “become indispensable” according to Dr. Wayne Boss and myself. These concepts were collected by him and later recalled by yours truly. If you classify yourself as an entrepreneur you might (read: will definitely) disagree with many of these points.
Seth Godin asked what it would take to become indispensable. I feel the following are some good places to start:
Senate says English is national, unifying tongue
The Senate agreed on Thursday to make English the national language of the United States and moments later also adopted a milder alternative calling English the country’s “unifying language.” (Source)
Wow, now people can’t keep touting that stupid “there is no national langue” argument. Well… if it makes it all the way through the House.
I like to play with numbers. Good thing I switched my major to Accounting, right? In any case, what’s one of the most important numbers to any student? That’s right: their GPA.
A few semesters ago I sat around wondering what my GPA would look like if I were to get an ‘A’ in X Class and a ‘B+’ in Y Class. I didn’t understand how Credit Hours and all that stuff worked. So, I pulled up some information online and realized it’s much simpler than I first imagined… but it still takes a bit of manual work to sort things out. So, like most of my problems, I decided to solve it with Excel.
Admittedly this isn’t a revolutionary tool or anything beyond a few formulas. But, it certainly helped me play with the numbers. I could tell how well I needed to do this semester in order to stay on the Dean’s List. Being an IB kid I guess I worry about silly things like that…
As you can see I’ve put in the necessary columns: course code, name, credits, grade (enter letter grade to get numerical score), quality points (score x credits). All I have to enter is the code, name, weight and then the letter grade. The rest will compute itself.
My understanding is that many colleges approach grades this way. If you’re in high school then all your classes would have a credit of ‘1’ except for AP classes which would be more (again, depending on the school).
In any case, I’ve sent this to a few friends and they’ve found it particularly useful for keeping their own records. Plus, as I mentioned, you can play around with grades and see how well you need to do in upcoming courses.
Notes: I added 30 hours to the Cumulative Credit Hours at the bottom (IB credit), you might want to take that out. If you need more semesters simply copy the Spring 2007 box, right click row 45 (empty row below it) and ‘Insert Copied Cells’ and select ‘Shift Cells Down’. From there you’ll need to make sure the cumulative GPA (furthest right) includes the new grades. Go into the cell and notice how the two sums are simply column F divided by the total credits in column C. Just add a comma and include the first grades/credits. Repeat for any other semesters added. Additionally, if your school has different values for the letter grades then simply unhide columns H and I. If you look in column K I also pointed to the values of only my business classes. This way I could compute my Business (Degree) GPA. In any case, check the formulas and have fun printing out your own report card!
As always, shoot me your comments, questions and/or suggestions.
Click here to download Grade Report.xls
[tags]grades, college, school, report card[/tags]
Elephant Not Interested in Using Treadmill
So far, it’s the trainers at the Alaska Zoo who are breaking a sweat trying to coax Maggie the elephant onto the world’s first treadmill for a pachyderm. (Source)
Does the Alaskan Zoo have anything better to do? Does the Associated Press have anything better to do? Do I have anything better to do?
Check this out: “Google Web Toolkit. GWT is a new publicly available software development tool that makes creating AJAX applications much easier. With GWT, you can develop and debug your own AJAX applications in Java code using the Java development tools of your choice.”
I submitted my site to be considered in the 4th round of applicants to 9rules. Everyone who applied should comment/trackback here so I can make sure my site is better than yours… err, so we can all check each other’s sites out (because face it, not everyone will get in). [tags]9rules[/tags]
You may or may not remember this productivity tool I’ve created. It’s simple, really. When I originally posted about it I wasn’t sure how I’d even use it and what the best methods would be. Now I can confidently share my Weekly Schedule tactics with you.
I’ve done some measuring and discovered the amount of time I waste sitting around or reading the news or doing some other un-productive tasks. Sometimes I lack motivation, other times I lack direction. This was an attempt to force myself to get as much done as possible each and every day.
The point of organization is not to simply organize, but to spend a little bit of time now in order to save a lot of time (or frustration, or energy, or whatever) later. In other words, there has to be some sort of benefit to your organization. For me, I was going to spend maybe 30 minutes on a Saturday or Sunday to sit down, look at what I have scheduled for the week and then fill in the gaps. This is how I planned to get more reading done, work out regularly, etc. By filling in the gaps I should always have something productive in front of me. Keep in mind I didn’t want to turn myself into a woaholic, I scheduled my “fun activities” like TV, blogging, playing Zelda 64 and checking email.
Anyway, let’s talk about the tool itself. It’s, as I mentioned, a simple full-page paper of the entire week split into 30 minute segments. Each row is 6 hours, 4 rows per day. My goal was to make sure each box was filled. These boxes only take up the left half of the page though. The right is dedicated to notes and any extra detail necessary. See below:
As you can see the tool is flexible for your needs. For some, a simple at-a-glance reminder is sufficient. For others, like myself, I’d like to plan out my entire week. Thus, I used some light colors and filled in the cells. Gray is sleep time, yellow is for meals, etc.
It’s Friday at noon, I know to look at the third line because half the day (two lines) has already passed. I should have lunch and then spend no more than an hour on email and blogs. After that I can tell I’m planning on reading and then heading to the gym. Easy as that. A few colors and some time spent planning means I don’t sit there and wonder ‘Hmm, should I go work out now? Well, I just ate, maybe later? Hmm, I haven’t played Nintendo in a while. Eh, but I should read I guess. Ah heck, I’ll just go take a nap.’
Instead of debating with my present self I can delegate the task of deciding to my past self. I’m a pretty diciplined guy but I know that when faced with a situation, like many humans, we’ll take the easy route. Thats why diciplined-Saturday-morning-scheduling-Devin made this schedule, he knew what was best for me.
It may not be for everyone but I like it because it’s pretty flexible. Some people prefer paper/pencil, others like technology. Either way I hope this can help someone else be more productive! As always, I appreciate comments, questions and suggestions.
EU3 to offer Iran nuclear reactor: diplomats
The EU’s three biggest powers plan to offer Iran a light-water nuclear reactor as part of a package of incentives if Tehran agrees to freeze its uranium enrichment program, EU diplomats said on Tuesday. (Source)
That’s all it takes to get a nuclear reactor these days?
…when they want to get your money. A few weeks ago I was mailed a coupon for $50 off any computer system over $800. Plus, I’d get free ground shipping. Dell saw me coming a mile away. I’m sure I was flagged “addcit” once I bought two LCDs and opened a Dell Preferred Credit account.
Rightfully so.
…I’ve always built my own computers. I think it was a mixture of having an abundance of free time and lack of abundance of cash. My “barebones” system was slowly upgraded over the years. I was running at a whopping 200mhz when I first started computing. Yikes. It was uber exciting when I upgrade my 4G drive to an 8G. It was so expensive too. I had no choice though: XP and Office took up like 3.5G alone. Oh the memories. I even remember installing my motherboard, looking at the processor, playing with Serial ATA cables. I hated putting in drives becuase of those cables. They were old and un-keyed so it took about 3 reboots to realize that something was upside down. Sigh.
I’m currently working on my second generation DIY machine. I’ve been pleased with it. I built it about 4 years ago after doing all kinds of research. So far I’ve had no issues with it… which is why I’m scared. I’m worried that these older drives will crash soon. If they don’t the PSU is going to go (it’s getting a bit noisey). Something is bound to happen and I don’t want to wait for that day.
I’m done building computers, though.
I used to know a decent amount about PC hardware. Lately I feel like I don’t know jack. I feel like I’m surrounded by a world of Pauls that could jump on NewEgg and build the best computer imaginable. I don’t think I know nearly enough of that stuff anymore. I didn’t even realize people were actually installing 1TB of RAID drives… in PCs!? I hadn’t even heard of a Pentium D, now I’m supposed to find out which motherboard to get for it? Ugh.
I’ll let Dell do it for me.
I played around online and made a bunch of configurations the other night. I ignored one minor detail: each time you hit submit order your coupon is rendered as ‘used’. I guess I forgot to tell Dell.com that I was just looking for the subtotal and tax. Jerks. My coupon was quickly labeled ‘invalid’ though I hadn’t even bought anything. I had to call Dell.
The guy I talked to was friendly and clever enough to solve my problem. I walked him through my configuration and we arrived at my subtotal. He understood my situation and disappeared to talk to a supervisor. In the end I got a free video card upgrade and my free shipping. That’s in addition to the free 19″ LCD upgrade. Overall I’m pleased with the experience.
…but that’s becuase they wanted my money. He made sure he “verified my needs” and made sure I was completely sure I didn’t need dual-DVD drives. No guys, I really know what I want, thanks for being so “helpful” though. I’m sure the post-sales experience won’t be the same. Oh well, I don’t plan on having to verify that anytime soon. I’m just excited to play with a new toy!
Oh, and if anyone is looking to buy a 19″ LCD (Dell 1907) for a good price be sure to let me know. I figure two monitors is enough for me.